Mumbai:
While in the recent past, several Bollywood films have under the scanner of Hollywood production houses for allegedly blatantly copying their films.
This time around it is the makers of Jodi Breakers starring R Madhavan and Bipasha Basu who can sigh in relief after their film has been exonerated from the charges of having copied their movie from the French film Heartbreakers.
Apparently the lawyers appointed by the producers of the film Heartbreakers saw the upcoming Bollywood film and allegedly came to the conclusion that there were no overt similarities between the two and have informed their clients accordingly.
Director Ashwini Chaudhary says, "The fact that they came to this conclusion comes as no surprise to me. I was aware that there were no similarities between the two films, other than maybe the similar sounding titles. I don't know who started this whole allegation against our film. This is not the kind of publicity we were looking for."
Instead, he feels there must have been some provocation to press for the plagiarism charges. "Why else would they have suddenly chosen to accuse us of plagiarism without seeing a single frame? I had given them a synopsis of my script.
Then I had offered to let them read my script in my office provided they first signed a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). But they refused. It was almost as if they were determined to prove we had copied their film."
Ashwini points out, "It is very fashionable and lucrative for people to jump in during the time of a film's release. It creates so much unnecessary tension for any project. There has to be a way to put an end to this troublesome practice."
This time around it is the makers of Jodi Breakers starring R Madhavan and Bipasha Basu who can sigh in relief after their film has been exonerated from the charges of having copied their movie from the French film Heartbreakers.
Apparently the lawyers appointed by the producers of the film Heartbreakers saw the upcoming Bollywood film and allegedly came to the conclusion that there were no overt similarities between the two and have informed their clients accordingly.
Director Ashwini Chaudhary says, "The fact that they came to this conclusion comes as no surprise to me. I was aware that there were no similarities between the two films, other than maybe the similar sounding titles. I don't know who started this whole allegation against our film. This is not the kind of publicity we were looking for."
Instead, he feels there must have been some provocation to press for the plagiarism charges. "Why else would they have suddenly chosen to accuse us of plagiarism without seeing a single frame? I had given them a synopsis of my script.
Then I had offered to let them read my script in my office provided they first signed a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). But they refused. It was almost as if they were determined to prove we had copied their film."
Ashwini points out, "It is very fashionable and lucrative for people to jump in during the time of a film's release. It creates so much unnecessary tension for any project. There has to be a way to put an end to this troublesome practice."
